Angelica Jones (Earth-616)
| CurrentAlias = Firestar | Aliases = Angel, Anj, Lady Comet, Firefly , Red | Identity = Secret | Identity2 = | Affiliation = Formerly (Jean Grey School member), , , , and student of the White Queen | Relatives = Bartholomew Jones (father) Nana (grandmother, deceased) Angelica Jones (clone, deceased) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = New Tian, California; formerly Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Salem Center, New York; New Warriors Crash Pad, New York City, New York; Avengers Mansion, New York City, New York; Massachusetts Academy, Snow Valley, Massachusetts | Gender = Female | Height = 5'8" | Weight = 125 lbs | Eyes = Green | Hair = Red | UnusualFeatures = | CharRef = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Adventurer, Teacher; former student, cultist | Education = Masters Degree in Physics | Origin = Mutant | PlaceOfBirth = | Creators = Chris Claremont; John Romita Jr. | First = Uncanny X-Men #193 | HistoryText = Early Years Angelica Jones was a thirteen-year-old high school student who fell victim to a series of unfortunate events. She was bullied by the girls at her school, her beloved grandmother died suddenly, and Angelica was frightened to discover that she herself was manifesting a strange superhuman power to generate great heat. With her grandmother gone, Angelica lived alone with her father, who was unable to cope with helping Angelica deal with her new power. Angelica was desperately confused, lonely, and miserable. Angelica was in fact a mutant, and her newly emerging mutant ability caused her presence to be detected by Cerebro, a machine designed by Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, for the purpose of locating superhumanly powerful mutants. Cerebro functions by detecting the unusual waves of psionic energy emitted by all superhumanly powerful mutants. Angelica's presence was also registered by Multivac, a similar machine employed by Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. Xavier and the X-Men attempted to pinpoint the unknown mutant's location in order to recruit her for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where he trained mutants in using their powers. Meanwhile, Frost did the same, hoping to enlist the unknown mutant in her school, where she could train her to use her powers in order to serve the sinister purposes of the Inner Circle. Frost reached Angelica and her father only moments before the X-Men could. Frost, in her public role as headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy, a renowned private school, persuaded Angelica's father to send her there to receive the special help she needed. Hellions A year later Angelica had made great progress in developing the use of her powers under the White Queen's guidance. Angelica remained an innocent, unaware of the true malevolent nature of the Hellfire Club and the White Queen. Angelica found some happiness at the Massachusetts Academy, and she was very grateful to Frost for the kindness she often showed her. Frost gave Angelica the code name of Firestar. Thunderbird (James Proudstar), one of the Hellions, a team of adolescent mutants being trained by Frost, sought vengeance on Xavier and the X-Men for the death of his brother, the original Thunderbird (John Proudstar), who had been killed in action while serving with the X-Men. Two other Hellions, Empath and Roulette, decided to help Thunderbird against the X-Men despite his refusal of their assistance. Empath used his power to control the emotions of others to force Firestar to fall in love with him so deeply that she would do anything he asked. He thus forced her to participate in the three Hellions' attack on the X-Men, whom Frost had taught Angelica to regard as enemies, at the military base at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. However, the X-Men defeated Firestar, Empath, and Roulette, and Thunderbird realized he was wrong to want vengeance on Xavier and the X-Men. Firestar, once free of Empath's control, felt despair and guilt over having helped the Hellions cause so much trouble at Cheyenne Mountain. She was pleased and touched, however, when Xavier offered to admit her into his school. She refused, though, out of loyalty to Frost, and returned to the Massachusetts Academy. Eventually, however, Frost began to manipulate Firestar to fulfill her true intentions. Frost intended to employ Angelica as assassin against her rival Selene, then the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. To this end, she used her telepathic powers, an armlet which allowed her to tap into Angelica's dreams, and her Hellfire lackeys to initiate alleged accidents with Angelica's powers, further driving her into isolation and Frost's arms. However, since her first day at the Academy, Angelica had been assigned a bodyguard named Randall Chase. Chase, who grew very close to Angelica, was aware of Frost's plans and became increasingly concerned about Angelica's welfare. Eventually, Frost had Chase restrained and scheduled for termination; Chase escaped, mortally wounded, and managed to relate the truth to Angelica before dying in her arms. In retaliation, Angelica turned against Frost, destroying the Academy's secret training center before returning to her father, with whom she reconciled. New Warriors Angelica was later contacted by the hero Night Thrasher to join with other teenage super humans to form the New Warriors. She joined with them for a long tenure, gradually developing a romantic relationship with Marvel Boy (later, Justice). After many months, Angelica learned that her powers were slowly causing her to become sterile and she began to use her powers more sparingly and to a lesser extent. During a revenge scheme by a gang of thugs called the Poison Memories, Firestar's father was shot in the chest. He nearly died but recovered. Firestar also faced a time without Vance, as he had to serve a prison term for the involuntary slaying of his own abusive father. Angelica proposed to Justice and he accepted. Avengers Angelica and Justice were brought to the Avengers by their fellow New Warrior Rage, who was an associate of the hero team. The three helped the Avengers reform after a period of long disbanding, and Angelica and Justice captured the villain Whirlwind to prove their worth to the team. They were accepted as reserve members under the tutelage of Avenger Hawkeye, and soon graduated to full membership status. Angelica was initially reticent about her role with the team, but she remained with them out of sympathy for Justice who was enamored of the team. She shared her medical problem with the team and was helped by Dr. Henry Pym who provided her with a treatment. Angelica felt increasingly a part of the team, and when Speedball tried to get her and Justice to rejoin the Warriors, they declined. Soon afterward, Angelica and Justice left active duty, presumably to explore their relationship. In reality, they were asked to secretly infiltrate the headquarters of the Triune Understanding, whose leader, Jonathan Tremont, was surreptitiously attacking the Avengers' public image for his own benefit. Firestar and Justice discovered the true cause of the Understanding -- using the beliefs of its members to sympathetically power a spaceship to battle a cosmic menace. They helped a contingent of Avengers join the battle against the menace, and directly afterwards helped the heroes keep the time-traveling Kang from conquering the world. After the crises were averted, they again parted company with the Avengers. The two left active Avenger duty to explore their relationship before marriage. Angelica started college and enjoyed a "normal life", but she abandoned wedding preparations, leaving Vance with all of the responsibility. When Vance confronted her about this, she confessed that she needed more life experience before settling into married life. Vance left in anger and presumably ended their engagement. Retirement Firestar is one of the few mutants left on the planet with her powers intact, after the Scarlet Witch altered reality and decimated the mutant population. With the Superhuman Registration Act signed into law, Angelica chose to give up being Firestar. She feared the harm that could come to her family if her identity was revealed and worried about how she could be exploited. She chose to focus on her studies. She tossed her mask away in the street. Marvel Divas Despite being in semi-retirement, Angelica became friends with Black Cat, Hellcat and Spectrum. Together, they would go shopping, do lunch and enjoy spa treatments in New York. Angelica continued to work hard at college, and would catch up with her friends in her spare time. However, one day she approached her friends with devastating news: she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Her friends rallied around her as much as they could to help, and accompanied her during medical consultations. Angelica went to see Night Nurse, and was also examined by Doctor Strange. They tried to reassure her, but it appeared that the cancer had grown substantially. Despite the fact that neither Doctor Strange nor Night Nurse could help, Angelica woke up one morning completely cured. In a desperate bid to save her, all three friends had gone their separate ways to find extraordinary methods to cure Angelica. Ultimately, one of them was successful, but at a high cost. Hellcat made a deal with her ex-husband Daimon Hellstrom. In exchange for curing Hellcat's friend, Hellstorm asked for Hellcat to spend one night in hell. However, Hellstorm had hidden intentions behind his deal, forcing Angelica, Black Cat, and Spectrum to journey into Hell to save Hellcat. Angelica had to officially come out of retirement and resume her role as Firestar. Young Allies Juggling life as a college student and superhero wasn't easy. Without any team to act as a back up, Firestar would often miss classes in order to help stop criminals. On one occasion she was dashing to class, trying to ignore her Diva teammates' pleas to socialize with them, when The Bastards of Evil launched an attack on New York. Changing course, Firestar ditched class and was one of the first to arrive on the scene. Using the element of surprise, she battled the super-villain Aftershock. She managed to save a heroine name Arana, who had also joined the fight, but they were still outnumbered and she was soon grounded by Aftershock. She was still locked in combat with the villain when Warhead detonated. Fortunately Firestar survived the explosion. In the following days she was disappointed by the lack of support she had received from her teammates and quit the Divas. She turned to a impromptu new partner, named Gravity. Together they began to hunt down the Bastards of Evil by trying to locate their criminal parents. This led Firestar into a battle with the veteran super-villain Electro. Despite his age, Electro used his greater expertise and experience to absorb Firestar's radiation and turn it against both her and Gravity. Using the moment to his advantage, Electro warned the two young heroes that he had no familial connections to the Bastards of Evil before sparing their lives. It later turned out that all the Bastards were former college students that the Superior had engineered to be the children of super villains to create chaos in hopes of succeeding where his father, the Leader had failed. Following the defeat of the Bastards. Firestar elected to keep the Young Allies going with Gravity's help and the two of had shown signs of romantic feelings for each other. Recently, Angelica had a reunion with Vance and the two were confronted with their past selves during their tenure on the Avengers thanks to the activities of Loki (also from the past). The two were forced to confront their lingering feelings and this allowed the two to finally move on from their past relationship. Professor at the Jean Grey School Firestar then got a teaching job as a physics teacher at the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning and became an X-Man. She admitted that she had a crush on Iceman, but he rejected her. After being dragged to Hell with other members of the X-Men she was pulled into a quest to search for the deceased Nightcrawler. World War Wendigo When Wolverine, now without his healing factor, went to Canada to answer a distress call from Heather Hudson about her missing husband, the X-Men decided to follow to protect their friend. When they arrived, they found that the Curse of the Wendigo had resurfaced, and was rapidly transforming all those on Canadian soil into Wendigo. Members of the X-Men, including Firestar, teamed up with members of Alpha Flight to battle the Wendigo and contain the threat. Alpha Flight member Talisman had been working on a mystical solution to the problem, and was just about to work her magic to end the curse when a transformed Wolverine stabbed her with his claws. Talisman was taken away to be cared for, while Angelica and the X-Men held back the Wendigo. An ancient god of evil was the cause of the curse. Angelica, Storm, Rockslide, and Iceman were chained against a wall, and had their powers dampened. Just before the Wendigo could finish them, they freed themselves, and forced one of the more benevolent, but cowardly, gods to grant them temporary godhood. Appearing as dazzlingly bright living flame, Angelica joined the living lightning that was Storm, the living ice that was Iceman, and the living earth that was Rockslide. Together, and with the continued assistance of the X-Men and Alpha Flight, the evil one was defeated, and the cursed ones reverted to human form. | Powers = Firestar is a mutant. Microwave Energy Generation: She has the ability to tap into Earth's electromagnetic field and convert it into microwave radiation emissions, which she can utilize in different ways. Microwaves are comparatively short waves of electromagnetic energy. Firestar continually absorbs microwave energy from her environment, including microwave energy from the stars, and continually broadcasts it at low levels. *''Microwave Energy Manipulation: In order to use her microwave energy for specific purposes, Firestar must mentally concentrate, thus causing the microwaves to swirl about her body, creating a visible aura around her. In order to project the microwave energy towards a specific target, she must mentally "push" some of the energy swirling around her towards that target. She can focus microwaves on a specific target, and cause it to burst into flame, or explode, or melt. She can also sense microwave signals (such as cell-phone signals or even remote-control devices) and disrupt electronics with her own microwave emissions. The nature of Firestar's power grants her the capacity for large-scale destruction. However, she typically limits how much of her own power she accesses for fear of permanently damaging the planet, its atmosphere and electromagnetic field. In space, she is far less inhibited, and can access greater levels of ambient electromagnetic energy to fuel her powers. She easily produced an attack that injured Garthan Saal when he possessed the energy of the entire Nova Corps, and also used her enhanced abilities to power a massive Shi'ar interstellar transport gate with very little effort. *Microwave Heat Emission: Firestar can use her microwave energy to generate intense heat. At this point she can already melt a metal object the size of a cannon almost instantly. She has flown towards a thick wall of solid rock and melted through it so quickly that she could continue flying right through the hole she had melted without pausing. *Microwave Flight: By super-heating the air around her, she can surround her self with an aura of flaming plasma, and if she projects her plasma aura downwards in a tightly focused stream, she can generate enough upward thrust to fly at high speeds. Firestar's powers appear to become more powerful when in space, and she was once able to power a massive stargate with virtually no effort. Her maximum speed has yet to be established, but she can already fly quite swiftly and maneuver in flight quite well. She can generate enough propulsive force to carry considerable weights to great heights at high speed. For example, she has carried Colossus, in his metal-like form, which weighs 500 pounds, high into the air. *Microwave Emission Immunity: Firestar is apparently immune to most of the damaging effects of the microwaves she emits, although she did undergo tests with Henry Pym to make sure. Unlike most mutants, however, her immunity to her own power was not complete; she was in danger of rendering herself sterile until a cure was discovered by Henry Pym in the form of a special suit. Pym claimed it would take about six months for the process to be complete and over time Firestar appeared to be functionally immune to microwave radiation. *Psionic Disruption'': On rare occasions, Firestar has demonstrated the ability to disrupt the psionic powers of others using her own power; namely, Emma Frost, Empath, and the Darkling. She is not immune to psychic assault, but when using microwave abilities at a high level she is capable of disrupting it though. At present Firestar is still in the process of learning how to use her powers. Moreover, she is still quite young, and the strength of her powers will surely increase as she reaches adulthood. Hence, the full extent of Firestar's powers has yet to be determined. During a fight between the Avengers and Fantastic Four, the Human Torch was afraid of burning her with his own flames. However, she eventually displayed the ability to siphon heat energy and to detect electromagnetic signatures from broadcast transmissions. | Abilities = | Strength = Firestar possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. | Weaknesses = Firestar's powers do not grant her any particular immunity to the effects of intense heat other than that generated by her own microwave powers. | Equipment = Full-body sheath of micro-circuitry designed by Hank Pym and worn under her uniform; siphons off and absorbs excess microwave emissions to protect Firestar's physiology from her own radiation that was affecting her cells, and diverted it in a way that would "kick start" her natural immunity to her own powers. | Transportation = Flight through her powers. | Weapons = | Notes = * Previously engaged to Justice (Vance Astrovik) * Her breast cancer was attributed to long-term exposure to her own power. | Trivia = * She's the first Avenger to have debuted outside Marvel canon, in the "Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends" cartoon. | Links = }} Category:Flight Category:Energy Manipulation Category:Post-M-Day Mutants (The 198) Category:Jean Grey School faculty Category:Significant Threats Category:Breast Cancer Category:Plasma Generation Category:Pyrokinesis Category:Energy Absorption Category:Content Adapted from Other Media